I quote from the synopsis on p.2: “Charming GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, winner of numerous European and world girls’ championship titles, invites you to join her on an exciting trip to the magical world of chess. This book will help complete novices get started and also aid more experienced players in their quest for improvement. Autobiographical accounts by Alexandra and her family are presented alongside of the instructional materials.”

This brunette Russian girl of Ukrainian ancestry looks like a model and loves the camera. She also loves chess and is eager to share it with all. She is a beneficiary of Soviet chess culture – her father confesses to being inspired by the feature film “Grandmaster,” in which one actor was V. Korchnoi. I cannot imagine a girl in any other part of the world developing thus. After the book’s completion she missed being the FIDE World Women’s Champion at 17 by a mere blitz playoff game with Zhu Chen. She plays 1e4 and attacks! Her current rating at 19 is pushing 2600.

The book (which contains many color and B+W photos, 22 games, a primer, 78 quiz positions, and eight poems) is a very unusual Russian product – at least to one who collected every Soviet chess book he could lay his hands on. It looks fully western, and the English is 99% correct. The essays by trainers and the star’s parents would fit well into “socialist realism,” though the chief author deviates from decorum when she admits that chess is a sort of drug.

This is the third book I’ve read by a female star and each had a human element usually lacking from chess books. I welcome the trend. Prettily packaged books like this and bright, photogenic personalities have the potential to raise chess into the big leagues.

At the recent World Open what most impressed me about Alexandra was the intense concentration she applied – to spectating other GMs’ games after she had blasted her final opponent off the board. I look forward to observing her future exploits, poetry, games and books. It is not fitting to call her the Anna Kournikova of chess. If Anna improves, she may become known one day as the Alexandra Kosteniuk of tennis.